Decluttering misc. "stuff" - part 1

Today I decided to tackle misc. "stuff."  Not easy, but surprisingly less emotional than paper for me.  My goal was to work on this section of our cabinet and to finish at least the middle shelf.

I took everything out, put in on the desk, cleaned the shelf, and then started sorting.  I threw away a lot of random things that I don't know what they are or we have no use for at all.  For example, we have some old lightbulbs that don't fit any of our current light fixtures, etc.  I even found a huge set of keys!

I'm pretty sure this set of keys has been with our stuff since we moved into our old apartment over three years ago.  I didn't know what any of the keys went to then, and I still have no idea!  Keys really aren't much good when you don't know what they go to, and since that apartment is now sold to someone else, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever find out what they go to.  I asked my supervisor just to make sure, and he said, "Junk them!"  It's nice to get rid of something that has absolutely no use to me at all.

Here is the before and after picture side by side:

Now the shelf truly serves its purpose of holding tools/tape/things like that.  Everything is accessible, with the most used items in the front (duct tape, batteries, tape measure) and tallest items in the back (silicon, foam, WD40).  A lot of the disorganization was from the fact that a lot of things that belong in the toolbox were in the pink tray (hammers, screwdrivers, etc.), and they all fit inside the toolbox without any trouble.

I did cheat just a little, with the large green bag, because it just has a bunch of candy that we bought for a children's program and didn't use it all.  I'm just keeping it for now, hoping that we will be able to use it this spring.  I set the bag on the floor, outside of the cabinet, for now.

Since that shelf went pretty well, I decided to tackle the top shelf next, because I knew there were some large items that would go pretty quickly.

Before and after:

That basket holds two smaller baskets, and I have never used any of them.  The lamp and the fan are both broken.  I double-checked, and yup, still broken, so I put them by the door to take out with the trash.  I keep the flashlight and candles in case the electricity ever goes out, and yes, Mom, I do iron occasionally.  :)  Since there was so much room up there, and the extra bedding section is pretty full, I put some pillows in the back that for some reason have been just sitting on the couch.  We normally keep the pillows up really high, but it's a pain to get the out and put them back, so they have just been sitting on the couch.  This is a nice compromise to have them put away and be easier to get to when we need them.

Since that shelf also went quickly, I decided to do the bottom shelf, too. The second and fourth shelf don't need any work, because the second shelf has my sewing stuff (that's the sewing machine in the blue bag) and the fourth shelf just holds my facepaint and some extra bags for traveling.  But that bottom shelf needs work.

I took everything out and put it on the desk, just like before, and I got rid of a few things (for some reason I kept the packaging from all of my jewelry?), but I found myself asking my husband's opinion more and struggling to make decisions.  When I opened the "old electronics" box, I got overwhelmed with all the misc. cords and I couldn't bring myself to just trash them all, so I decided to quit for the day.  Decision fatigue won out for the day.  But overall I'm really pleased with what I got accomplished!  I left the contents of the bottom shelf on the desk in the hopes of tackling them tomorrow.

Cabinet before and after picture (with the bottom shelf contents still on the desk):

Not bad for a day's work!  :)

Decluttering paper - finally finished!

I really don't know how many HOURS I've spent decluttering paper in the past few weeks, but it has been A LOT.  I'm so excited to be finally finished!  I filled up two small trash bags:

It was really odd how I felt emotionally attached to many of my papers.  Kondo says that "papers never spark joy," but I found that not to be true for me.  I found myself smiling and reminiscing at the little post-it where I wrote what we bought at the NC State Fair (thanks Brian for buying our fried oreos), receipts from the Chattanooga Aquarium, Chick-fil-a, even Walmart!  Granted, most of the papers I found myself reminiscing about were from our time in the US last fall, so I guess I should cut myself a little slack.  But I have pictures from all our travels, which are much better than a receipt, so I threw them away (with a little sigh of remembrance).   There were also a lot of things that I have no idea why I kept them this long, like the entire manual from our temporary car insurance in the US (why in the world did I waste suitcase space and weight to carry that back here?) and privacy policies to things.  I enjoyed ripping those up. 

As I said in my previous paper post, I didn't shred silly things like McDonald's receipts, but I did have a lot of documents (bills, etc.) with our name and address.  I gave up on the scissors pretty quickly because they were starting to rub my thumb and tore almost all the papers by hand.  I think there was something therapeutic about actually ripping up so many papers.  I scanned some to keep only electronically, and I saved a few important documents (tax docs, etc.), but I threw away a lot.  I kept the papers from 2015 in the expandable folder they were already in.  I'll deal with them next January.  For now, it's hard to believe that I actually finished decluttering all those papers!  :)

Next up is our "junk" shelf, which holds things like our toolbox, lightbulbs, string, tape measures, nails, screws, and who knows what else!  But for now, I'm relaxing and relishing being finished with paper.  :)

What I've been wearing this winter...

I thought it would be nice to write a post about how I've used my winter capsule so far.  I've been using it for about a month since we came home from our vacation.  I've added a few new pieces and put some in the suitcase to decide if I will get rid of them or want to get them out and wear them.  

Here are the new pieces I added:

 I got the teal/green shawl on vacation, and I really love it.  I bought the green vest, because I wanted to try out a vest for versatility.  I've never worn vests, but I like it so far.  It is very warm.  The tan pants I wanted also for versatility.  They were a Christmas present.  I wanted tan jeans that are more casual than regular dress pants.  

Here are the pieces I put away:

Even though I love the colors of these shirts, I just never want to wear them because of the structure.  Plus, they are difficult to wear under a sweater since they are 3/4-sleeved.  The denim skirt I never wear because it feels to short.  The maroon skirt doesn't seem to match anything.  That particular color doesn't look good with what I have. 

For the past month, I've worn 15 outfits, which are below:

 

 The first outfit I made from the inspiration of my "forest" look, with brown and green, but it still feels a bit boring/too neutral for me.  I only wore this once.  I have mixed feelings about that tan sweater, because it is warm and comfy, but it doesn't seem to go well with many colors.  I don't know why.  It just looks weird to me with bright colors.

The second outfit I really like.  I wore it 3 times (the most out of all my outfits).  It is incredibly comfy and warm, and I love that teal scarf.  I've noticed that I have been wearing it a lot, usually with navy (or white) and my owl earrings.

Starting with the third outfit, I had to switch to my snow boots because it snowed.  I wore them every day until the snow melted.  The city doesn't clear our street, since there is no public transportation on it, so the snow remains until it melts.  Also, a lot of the sidewalks have ice and snow, and we walk most of the time.  Again, this outfit is the teal scarf and owl earrings, paired with my white sweater this time.  I wore this twice.

My green sweater actually looks best without a scarf, but it's cold, so the navy one works pretty well.  I tried to change things up a bit, because I wear my dark jeans almost every day.  I got a new pair to replace my ripped old jeans, and these look almost more like navy pants than jeans, but it's ok.  These burnt ochre cords work better when it's warm enough to wear short boots, but I just wore them for variety.  I also wore this same sweater and scarf with my dark jeans (pictured below).

The fifth outfit is actually the shawl I bought on vacation, but I thought I would experiment to wear it a different way, kind of like a blanket scarf.  I've also gotten quite a bit of use out of my silver Celtic cross earrings/necklace I bought last year in Scotland.  I also wore this a second time with the shawl worn normally.

The first outfit in this row I really like.  I just love that shawl.  And I love teal.  I would prefer to wear it with different boots, but the weather dictates my shoe choices more than style.  I wore this once, to church.

The second and third outfits were just ok to me.  I wore both of them only once.  Again, I was trying to have some variety in my pants with my black jeans and green cords.  (In the third outfit I took the picture after already changing into my slippers at home.)  The navy sweater is a replacement to the navy sweater in my capsule, and it's sparkly, which is fun.  It was a Christmas present.  I can't decide yet if I love the pink scarf or not.  

The fourth outfit is the same match-up again with the teal scarf and owl earrings, with my cream turtleneck sweater and the only skirt I decided to keep.  I wore this once, to church.

The green vest I wore with no jacket (and back to my regular boots - yay!) on a day that was unseasonably warm.  It was great, because it really kept me warm without a jacket.  I really like the coziness of the vest.  I wore this outfit twice. 

The first outfit in this row I wore only once.  Again, I was trying to make the tan sweater work with neutrals, using my chambray shirt as a base this time.  It ended up that the meeting I went to that day was in a warm room, so I ended up taking off both the sweater and the scarf, wearing only the chambray shirt and tan pants.  I keep trying to make the tan sweater work, because it's so warm, but it never seems to work well.

The second outfit I wore only once, but I like the pink scarf better with the green sweater than the navy.

As I said above, I wore the green sweater also with the dark jeans.

This navy dress had pockets that looked weird, so I recently sewed up the holes and cut them out.  I think it looks a lot better now.  I wore it with a white corduroy jacket that I had previously put away, and my teal/pink scarf.  I think this outfit would look better without the jacket, but I needed the warmth.

In the last outfit, I finally wore shoes that were not tall boots on a day that I thought was going to be warm, but I was freezing and changed back to the tall boots later in the day.  I would like to try to incorporate these medium wash jeans more for variety.


I'm really excited that I just replaced my white sweater (which is a bit too short, since it has shrunk in the many years I've owned it - something like 9 or 10 years).  I had put a white cowl neck sweater in the suitcase, because I'm trying not to wear white next to my face, and I can't wear a scarf or anything with a cowl neck.  I had the idea to cut off the cowl neck part, and I think it's going to work really well!  The neck is a little bit wide, but I sewed in some snaps to wraps a string around my bra straps so that they won't show.  If you've actually read this far, and you're interested in learning how I did that, here is a link to a video I found:  http://www.sallyannk.com/2013/08/diy-video-sew-bra-strap-holder-into.html

Decluttering Paper - not so easy

The next thing on Kondo's list of decluttering is paper.  I don't know why, but paper is the hardest thing for me to get rid of.  Papers (mostly) are what fill my boxes that are just sitting in my parents' attic.  I read a quote somewhere (I forget where) in which a person said they were saving things as though someday someone would erect a museum in their honor!  It really struck home for me as I am (slowly) realizing how ridiculous it is some of the things that I keep. 

Yesterday I went through a lot of the paper items that we have in our office/guest room.  I had a bag of old receipts I had been saving for almost a year with plans to shred them.  We don't have a shredder, and it was on my to-do list to find someone with a shredder and shred those receipts.  However, I realized that perhaps they don't all need to be shredded.  After all, who cares about a McDonald's receipt from 2013?  And before you go telling me that I'm ridiculous for not throwing that receipt away the day I get it, I keep paper receipts because it is the only way I can keep track of our finances.  We predominantly use cash here, because a lot of places don't accept cards, and it is easier for me to keep all paper receipts and then total them at the end of the month.  I categorize the receipts and total them to see how we used our money the previous month, and if we are in the positive or negative for the month and year.  It's a bit cumbersome, but in a cash-dominant culture, it is the easiest method for me to keep track of our finances.  I'm not good with the Dave Ramsey envelope system, because our months differ in structure and are slightly difficult to predict. Now that I've defended my receipt-keeping, I realized last January that it had gotten out of hand.  I keep the receipts in an expanded plastic envelope folder by category.  It fits pretty well that by the end of the year, the folder is full.  Last January, when I was considering buying a new folder, I realized it would be much easier to just empty out an old folder - after all, I really don't need all those receipts from 2012 when we first moved here.  I decided that I would just keep one year, because I do occasionally have to refer back to them (such as when my organization asked what were our average utility costs for the previous year).  So, I emptied out that folder and put all the receipts into a plastic bag "to be shredded."  It sat in the floor for a while until we finally had someone over and I put the whole bag in the closet.  And there it sat for almost a year "to be shredded."  I looked through them yesterday, and only a few bills actually needed to be shredded, so I just cut our name and address off and into little pieces with scissors.  It took some time, but it feels so good to finally be rid of all that paper!  I also threw away some other unnecessary papers and better organized three shelves in our closet, consolidating them into two shelves and making room for my husbands shoes. 

This is the after picture.  (The top shelf is extra sheets/bedding for the guest bed.)  One thing I realized is that I had not taken good advantage of the vertical space, so I stacked some books vertically, which helped.  I also decided to get rid of my language flash cards.  I've been making vocabulary/grammar flash cards since we got here in Oct. 2012 (and I even made some before we moved), so I had hundreds of flash cards.  Since we passed our language exam in June 2015 (yay!), I haven't looked at my flash cards once.  I decided that, even though I still don't know all the words/grammar rules written on the cards (I have a pile still labeled "need practice"), my learning style has changed.  I can talk to people and ask questions, use google translate, and conjugate words online.  While my method for conjugating a verb used to be looking through my verb flashcards, now I just use the dictionary online.  Also, I have so many flash cards that it is overwhelming to think about looking through all of them just to find one word. And even though I could still look through the flash cards to practice, I just don't do it anymore.  I talk to people, read articles online, read the subtitles on movies, listen to music, etc., but I don't sit around practicing my flash cards anymore.

This is a picture of me studying for my exam from June 2015.

One thing I've read in multiple places is that if you are having trouble getting rid of something, take a picture of it.  Even though that advice is primarily for sentimental items, it helps me get rid of my flashcards just having the above picture to chronicle the hours and hours I spent making and studying them. 

I find it really ironic that the thing I have the most trouble getting rid of - paper - is what Kondo is the most adamant about getting rid of.  She says that paper never "sparks joy," and that the default should be to just throw it away (unless it is absolutely necessary to keep it, like a rental agreement or tax documents).  I still couldn't bring myself to get rid of the workbooks and notebooks from language learning.  I don't know why.  It's like I feel like I have to have some sort of physical evidence to prove that something happened.  Like I couldn't just talk to someone in my new language for them to know that I studied.  Maybe it comes from a feeling that I have to prove myself - that I worked hard or something.  I really don't know.  I hope that whenever I visit my parents, I can declutter at least some of my childhood papers that are just sitting in boxes in the attic.  I can't just throw a box away without looking at it, because I think it's nice to keep a little.  It's harder that way and it takes longer, but it's the only way I can have piece of mind.  The trick is knowing what to keep and what to throw away.

Decluttering Books - That was easy!

Apparently Marie Kondo lists books after clothes in the order that you should declutter.  Here is a picture of our bookshelf:

As you can see, my book section (less than half of the second shelf from the bottom) is pretty small compared to my husband's.  For those of you that know both of us, that should come as no surprise.  As I count it, I had 14 books, with 3 others I would consider "our's".  I got rid of 2 books, both fiction that I enjoyed but will probably not read again.  I put one book back on the shelf that had been in the drawer in my nightstand (even though I had finished reading it), and I put the stack of Bibles (that were behind the tv) on the bottom shelf behind the picture on the right.  No real need for an "after" picture, because it looks exactly the same.  I did leave two books that I haven't read and I'm not sure I will ever read them, but it's ok.  I also have two books on my nightstand, one I am almost finished reading and another that I haven't started yet.  Unfortunately, our bookshelf looks a little "busy" with all the pictures, but we don't have anywhere else to display them, and I love them all, so that's the best we can do in our space.

Check that off the list!  Boom!  :)

It should probably be said that I do have (I think) some books in boxes at my parents' house, but last time we were there, I went through all my clothes and a lot of our books.  For now, I can only focus on what I have here, and I hope to do more decluttering next time I'm in the US.

The Psychology of Packrat-itis

The past few days I've been reading a lot about the psychology of "packrat-itis" (apparently that's a word?) and hoarding.  I've never actually watched the tv show "Hoarders" because I don't really watch much tv, but I think most people have heard of it.  Hoarding is actually a clinical disorder where a person has trouble deciding what to keep or throw away and defaults to keeping things.   Hoarding is packrat-itis to the extreme - things piled to the ceiling, to the point of where it is a danger to the person.  The scary thing is that at the root, I have that same problem, just within a normal range.  When I can't decide whether or not to keep something, I default to keeping it almost every time.  It's not always obvious, because I'm extremely organized, so I can keep a lot of things without it being noticeable. 

Growing up, my room was always super messy, with piles of stuff everywhere.  I remember that when I was in 4th grade, I bought a hamster cage with my own money, and my mom told me that I could buy a hamster when I cleaned my room.  In high school, I finally sold that hamster cage to a neighbor.  The thing is though that my room wasn't necessarily a typical messy room.  I never had dirty clothes or any trash laying around.  What I had was a lot of papers mostly, a few half-finished projects - the problem was that I had too many.  When I went away to college, I was surprisingly neat and tidy in my dorm room.  Everything was always put away in its place.  I can't remember exactly when it was, maybe the summer after my first year of college, I came home and cleaned my entire room.  It took a long time.  I threw a lot away, but unfortunately I also put a lot in boxes to put in the attic.  I still wanted to keep it all, just in a more organized, put-away, fashion. 

I think maybe part of the reason I'm so organized is because I've always had so much stuff.  It takes a lot of work and effort to organize it all, but I do it.  I remember when I was teaching and I went from two subjects to three.  I upped my organization to color coding.  I had a shelf for each subject, my plans were each in their own notebook on the right side of the shelf, papers to pass out on the left, papers to grade and return in a stackable tray on my desk.  I'm very good a managing a ton of stuff.  Even though I had a ton of clothes, they were always organized by type and usually within each type I put the last thing I wore on the right so I wouldn't repeat too often. 

However, a few days ago when I was going through the Cladwell capsule wardrobe course, something struck me.  In the last video they said, "What would happen if you were to apply these principles of intentionality and purpose to all the areas of your life?  Imagine the freedom and peace of mind."  Honestly, I found that thought at the same time liberating and terrifying.  I spend so much time and mental energy organizing thing.  What if I had less things?  What would I do with my time?  I think the perfectionist part of me wants to keep working on my winter capsule continuously, but the whole point of doing a capsule is to stop doing that.  It's really hard for me to stop, to say that something is "good enough."  But I'm going to try.  In Kondo's book, she recommends tackling decluttering by type, with clothing being first, so I think I'm going to stop on clothing until next season and maybe start on something else!

Question: Do you want to see how I'm using my winter capsule to create outfits?  Let me know if you're interested!

If you want more info on the psychology of packrat-itis, here are a few links I bookmarked:
http://www.wisebread.com/help-from-a-former-pack-rat-getting-rid-of-stuff
http://peopleialmostknow.com/kim-cox-the-psychology-of-clutter-and-packrat-solutions/ (this is actually an audio recording, but it is really great)
http://minimalistpackrat.com/2010/10/28/psychology-of-clutter/

A (clothing-related) confession and revelation

Yesterday I decided to try Cladwell (http://capsules.cladwell.com/), which is a subscription-based service that helps you make a capsule wardrobe.  It had really good reviews and was recommended by two of my favorite fashion bloggers (http://www.puttingmetogether.com) and (http://www.anneinresidence.com).  You have to pay $15 for a 3-month subscription, but I figured that I would pay that much for a nice shirt, and maybe it would be helpful.  They have videos and step-by-step tutorials that are really good.  I actually took everything out of my closet (only the winter stuff since I have non-seasonal clothing put away right now) and only put back in the items that I love.  Even though I had read that in Marie Kondo's book, I had not actually done it yet.  I did put a few more things in the suitcase, which I've read some bloggers call "clothing purgatory" - a place where you put clothes before you decide their fate (before donating them).  As I've said before, I really like that in-between step, because it makes it easier for me to put clothes away if I know that I can get them out if I change my mind.  Whenever I decide to donate those clothes, it will be easier because the attachment has been lessened (out of sight, out of mind).

After that first step of only putting the clothes you LOVE back in your closet (and Cladwell recommends that you put away non-seasonal clothes, unlike Kondo), their next recommendation was to make a Pinterest board to see what you like.  I've read that recommendation from a number of other people, and so far I have not done it, but I think that something about the fact that I had paid for this advice made me take it.  So I did it.  I created a Pinterest board.  I'm so ashamed.  Most of you who know me know that I have been anti-Pinterest for years.  I don't like how it creates competition among women and pressure to have the most creative perfect-looking homes, parties, etc.  But I admit that it was actually helpful for me.  Between looking at the clothes that I kept and writing down why I kept each piece, and pinning outfits and nature scenes that I like, I was actually able to develop a theme for my wardrobe that I really LOVE.  I would've never thought that nature scenes could actually help me pick out clothes, but for some reason something clicked for me with nature.  I found myself being drawn to scenes with a path in the forest, optionally including some type of water (stream or lake).  I LOVE walking in the forest more that almost anything.  It is so calming for me. 

 

So, I decided that I walk in the forest (with optional water and flowers) would be my theme. What that means for me is that my "neutrals" or base of my wardrobe will be brown, blue, and green.  Any shade of those colors works for me.  Then my "pop of color" is flowers - pink, yellow, red, purple, orange.  I didn't like how Cladwell (and most other advice for capsule wardrobing) limit me to a set number of neutrals, main colors, and accents, usually 3 maximum of each.  It just doesn't work for me.  It's actually been one of the most frustrating things for me, because as I said in my last post, I just like colors!  So, I'm super excited about this idea of using brown, blue, and green as my base neutrals, and other colors as accents. 

Also, it helped me realize how important comfort is to me.  In my list of the clothes that I love, I listed comfort as a reason 18 times.  Clothes have to be comfortable in order to wear them to relax and walk through a path in the forest.  You wouldn't wear a suit and heels - it just doesn't make sense.  So even though I'm usually walking down a city street, somewhere inside I want to feel like I could be walking through the forest, because that helps me feel more relaxed and not so stressed.  And stress is the reason I'm doing all of this, to help reduce the stress of decision-making every morning from a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear.

After all that, Cladwell asks you about your lifestyle activities and what types of clothing you wear, then makes recommendations for how many items of each type you should have and if it should be a neutral, main color, or accent color.  I was disappointed by this last step, because it was so far off from my actual wardrobe.  If you are starting from scratch, it could be really helpful, but it just didn't work for me.  Because I had already gone through my wardrobe more than once on paper by number of items per type, I felt that I had already done this step in a more personalized way.  If I had just listened to advice from other places, I would not have needed Cladwell.  So, I'm glad I did it, but I cancelled my subscription.  As far as whether or not I would recommend Cladwell, I think depends on where you are in the journey.  It's helpful, especially if you're just starting out, but it's not necessary.  Pinterest was actually helpful for me, though.